Browns' Jackson regrets lost opportunity

Saturday

Nov 16, 2013 at 1:00 AMNov 16, 2013 at 1:01 AM

“It’s just funny how this business is,” the 30-year-old linebacker said amid the bustle of packing for a road trip. “You never know what opportunity may be in front of you. When an opportunity comes up, you really have to take advantage.

BY Steve DoerschukRepository sports writer

D’Qwell Jackson hasn’t got time for the pain.

He says he “doesn’t really remember anything about the game,” the one the Browns lost at Cincinnati in 2007 to cost them a playoff berth.

He is no longer tortured by losing 26 consecutive games to freak injuries.

The captain of the Browns’ No. 5-ranked defense basks in anticipation of the latest visit to the Ohio River.

“It’s just funny how this business is,” the 30-year-old linebacker said amid the bustle of packing for a road trip. “You never know what opportunity may be in front of you. When an opportunity comes up, you really have to take advantage.

“This is an opportunity.”

MOVING UP

If the Browns beat the AFC North-leading Bengals, they will be a half-game out of sharing first place. Beating Cincinnati on Sunday and Pittsburgh a week later would guarantee a share of the top spot, with the Bengals heading into their bye week.

Both Cleveland and Cincinnati would be 6-5, but the Browns would win a tie-breaker, having defeated the Bengals twice.

Jackson was a second-year Brown when the team went to Cincinnati on Dec. 23, 2007, with a chance to clinch a playoff spot.

“What I remember about that day,” Jackson said, “is sitting in the locker room after the game, thinking about the opportunity we could have had that day, and we didn’t get it accomplished.”

The Browns dug a 16-0 hole and wound up losing 19-14. They won the next week to finish at 10-6, but tie-breaker quirks washed them out of the postseason.

“It was my first time in the NFL of feeling that way,” Jackson said.

SIGNIFICANT GAME

“And it was the last time ... to be in that position at that point of the season.

“I knew the importance of the game going in. I understood it better when the game was over.”

The next time Jackson went to Cincinnati, the Browns were trying to save a new season. They had become an NFL item, with five national TV games scheduled for 2008, but they tanked out of the gate, losing their first three.

Then they won 20-12 at Cincinnati before beating the defending Super Bowl champion Giants on a Monday night.

The revival ended there. They plunged out of contention, finished 4-12, and continued on through dreadful years.

Jackson fell into the darkest period of his career. He went through a divorce. He lost most of the 2009 season to pectoral surgery, then missed all of 2010 following, believe it or not, pectoral surgery on the other side of his upper body.

IN BETTER PLACE

These years later, having played in 41 consecutive games, Jackson can laugh about knockdown punches from which he has recovered.

“I still feel good,” he said. “My legs feel fresh. From those two years I was out, I feel like I gain something now.”

He seems not to have lost the hunger that persuaded then-general manager Phil Savage to make a draft trade to get him.

Savage feared he would lose Jackson if he didn’t trade up in the second round in 2006. He sent former first-round pick Jeff Faine to Tampa Bay in exchange for a No. 34 overall pick, spent on the linebacker out of Maryland.

Time flew. Jackson has persevered to see another season that could become relevant. He has been among NFL leaders in tackles all season, and he anchors a defense that, in the expansion era, never has ranked this high this late.

BALANCE IS BEST

He won’t go so far as to say the defense can carry the Browns to the playoffs.

“We’re not good enough for one side to be completely better than the other,” he said. “Nowadays, you’ve got to be good on both sides of this ball in order to get where you want to get.

“Yeah, we want to be the strong part of this team, but we’ve got playmakers on that side of the ball.”

Ask him if he is playing his best football, and Jackson shakes his head subtly.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “The guys in front of me make my job a lot easier, but I don’t think I’ve had that year where I impress myself.

“I put a lot on myself. I feel like I have a lot more to give.”

Given where the Browns find themselves, these years after Jackson lamented that 2007 moment in Cincinnati, he understands full well.

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